US: Former CIA officer charged with stealing gold bars from government

Federal court filings in Virginia, home to the Langley headquarters of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), show a former official is accused of stealing hundreds of gold bars and other valuables from the government. 

The man was arrested and charged with criminal theft of public money last week, according to the court documents, the Associated Press reported.

What is the case about? 

Between November 2025 and March this year, the man requested and received a "significant quantity of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars for work-related expenses," an affidavit from an FBI agent investigating the case alleges. 

It says it's unclear what he intended to use the funds for, but that a portion of it was found in a storage space near his office. 

When federal officials then searched his home on May 18, they seized more than 300 gold bars with an estimated value of more than $40 million (roughly €35 million). 

The affidavit says they also seized foreign currency worth roughly $2 million and some 35 luxury watches, many of them Rolexes.

While investigators don't say what the accused planned to do with the materials, the affidavit concludes that there is probable cause to believe that he "knowingly embezzled, stole, purloined, or knowingly converted a thing of value of the United States" for his personal use. 

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What else do we know about the suspect? 

The affidavit does not detail the suspect's role at the CIA but describes him as a "former senior executive service-level employee at a United States government agency" — referring to the highest tier of civilian leaders in the organization, where top secret-level clearance is generally mandatory.

The Associated Press reported that FBI spokespeople declined to comment further and that the CIA did not respond to an email query.

The FBI affidavit also says the suspect seemed to have lied for years about his education and military background. 

The investigation found he had falsely claimed to be a former Navy pilot who had graduated from Clemson University in South Carolina and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. Instead they found he had attended neither college, and served in the Navy and then the Navy Reserves betwen 1997 and 2015, reaching the rank of lieutenant, without appearing to have ever underwent evaluations as a pilot. 

Edited by: Elizabeth Schumacher

Editor's note: DW follows Germany's press code, which stresses the importance of protecting the privacy of defendants in many cases, especially prior to conviction.